GarageBand is finally truly useful for garage bands, now that it supports eight-track recording, allowing up to eight real instruments to record at the same time. Thatcombined with a host of other indispensable additionsmakes GarageBand 2 the most improved member of iLife '05.

iLife '05's Most Improved Component award definitely goes to GarageBand. With the original version, Apple brought music creation to millions of Mac-using amateurs who had never tried it and probably thought it required a wall of high-end electronics. GarageBand 2's greatly expanded capabilities, such as eight-track recording, pitch and timing correction, standard musical notation display, and a host of other welcome features, make it useful for serious musicians. Best of all, it did this without complicating the interface. GarageBand 2 now easily surpasses Sony's $69.95 Acid Music Studio, the leading sub-$100 Windows-based music-creation tool, although it still doesn't have the precise mastering control of Acid Pro ($499.95).

Eight-track recording is a huge step up for GarageBand, letting a band record eight real instruments and one software instrument at once. Multitrack recording requires an audio interface. We used the M-Audio FireWire 410 ($499), sold through the Apple store, which was a snap to set up. If you don't have a band, you can now import MIDI, Apple Lossless, and ACID files easily by dragging them in from the Finder. We really like the way GarageBand displays every track in a MIDI file separately, letting you see and edit every note, orif you're into karaokejust sing along.

If you do sing along, you'll find handy new tools for correcting your pitch and timing, both of which work with a single slider bar. Overuse the pitch corrector and you'll hear a definite electronic warble, but a little of it added a noticeable improvement to our truly awful test recordings. Apple has thrown in a few fun vocal-transformer effects as well, including ones that will change the gender of the singer or make you sound like a robot.

Of course most of GarageBand 2's other improvements are more useful than that. You can now add dynamic pan changes to your tracks, which will change what speaker the track plays through, and easily adjust it throughout the track for a professional surround effect. You can also view tracks as standard musical notation (even in real time as you play!), create your own loops, and use your computer's keyboard as a one-octave piano keyboard.

These are only the most prominent additions in GarageBand 2. Nearly anyone will enjoy experimenting with the program, but for established musicians or bands just starting out, its price, feature set, and ease of use make it a must-have.

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